69 Suburban refresh
 

This is a minor project to fix some rust issues and some bodywork. Not a complete rebuild by any means.

Some of you may recognise this burb. I purchased it from a board member back in the spring. My family and I flew from FL to NM, and drove it home. It was a great trip, sort of a home-made PowerTour :D .

Its a 69 C-20 with the original 396, TH400 and front bucket seats.

When I purchased the burb it had a sizable dent in the roof where a tree had fallen on it. This project was to address that as well as fix some rust issues in the rear hatch. That was the only rust I could find on it.

Here is what it looked like when I purchased it. Notice the dent in the roof. There was other damage on the hood as well that does not show well in the pics.

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Here are a couple other general pics of the burb.

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Great purchase! I got to look at the truck several times while I was in ABQ and it was well worth the money. Can't wait to see more pictures as it progresses.

R/

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Had to pull the forward headliner to see if I could get to the dent from the back side. Only minimal luck with that as the roof just above the windshield is double walled. I tried a stud welder and a slide hammer and this is where you realize the difference between the sheetmetal used in our trucks and newer cars. All the slide hammer would do was either pop the stud loose or break it off entirely. A port-a-power would not work because the roof was double walled. What I ended up doing was welding a bolt to the roof and using my cherry picker to pull it out. It worked really well. We were able to hammer out the rest of the roof and only ended up using a small amount of filler to smooth it out. Unfortunately I don't have many pics of that process but you can see from these pics the bolt that was used. I was kidding the wife (her truck) that we could name the burb "Spike" (see the pics).

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Here is the filler applied and being smoothed out. The toughest part was smoothing out that small lip that runs along there.

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Here is the work I did on the hatch. It seems the more I looked the more rust I found. This leads me to think, how "Rust Free" can these vehicles actually be if there was this much rust in the hatch on a truck that had spent it's entire life in the desert? I have a glove box full of receipts that show it was being maintained in NM throughout it's life.

Here is where I started repairing the rust. It was just a couple small pin holes when I started digging around.

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This is what I ended up cutting out

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After all that I used some metal ready and then POR-15 on the inside of the hatch.

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Here is the new metal being welded in. Nothing special here.

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Here is another rust area I found while welding in the bottom panel.

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Finish welding and grinding the welds preparing for filler.

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Great patch work. Unfortunately the hatches on these burbs are they're weak link to rust. I think it is due to the fact that the metal is stretched so much to stamp it, that it is very thin. Add that to the fact they didn't put any type of rust inhibitor on the inside. It took me 4 to find a "rust free" hatch. I took it to a place that dipped them in a rust remover and then dipped it in EDP primer. Hopefully I will not have to worry about it anymore.

R/

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Beautiful burb, and awesome patch work. :D

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Time for filler, a little bodywork,primer and blocking.

Filler and sanding, primer and sanding, and sanding, more primer, and more sanding. To save from the boredom, I have only included pictures of the filler sanded. Next will be the pay off, paint!

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

As you can tell by now I have all this completed already. Just a little derelict in getting it posted... ;)

I had to paint the white area first. I marked where the stripe would be before I removed the hatch from the burb. That way I did not have to fit it back on just to run the fineline.

After painting the white and letting it dry, I masked off my new white paint and painted the green. Then when that was done I removed all my masking and cleared the entire hatch. I think it came out pretty good considering my facilities.

Here are the final pics of the hatch painted.
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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Time to finish the roof and get it painted :) . Don't you wish it went this fast in real life? All this work in just a few hours...

Here are some additional pics while it was in Urethane. Just before going into paint

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Painting in process. That was a long stretch over the top of that roof. I can also see how they got the name "long roof".

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Now for the payoff on the roof. 3 coats of white and 3 coats clear and this is what I ended up with.

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Thanks guys for the positive comments. It has taken me about a month to get to this point considering the limited time I have to work on it. I was able to get it completed just in time to take it to Daytona Beach last week for the Turkey Rod Run. That is always a great trip.

I will post the pics of the hood repair tomorrow. I guess I should get some work done today...

Steve

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Looks great! I think the external hinges also play a big part in moisture getting in and starting the rust process. I still have some rust work to do on my Tahoe but most is done already, and yes it is some very thin metal.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Nice work! I think you have done a great job...especially in a month's time.

However, your 'burb reminds me of a unicorn with that bolt welded to the roof. Ha, ha! That was actually a very practical solution. Nice work.

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Here are the pics of the hood work. The hood had about 6 sizable dents from the tree that fell on the roof. All of the dents were about 2" in diameter and just needed a little hammer and dolly time to get them up to level. There were a few other chips and dings as well to get it smooth but nothing real bad. Then a smear of filler, urethane, blocking, etc. etc, .... you know the deal.

Here are the pics.

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Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

I appologize, I just realized I did not post pics of the hood painted :dohh:. I will still have to do another repaint due to a mixing problem by my jobber. That will take place sometime over the next couple months as I prepare the burb for going on the power tour.

My jobber must have been seriously distracted or on something when he mixed the paint. You will see in the pics. Anyway, after mentioning it to him he ended up giving me enough free paint and clear to repaint the entire burb! :metal: (Or maybe Jezebel, if I decide to stick with this color.) I did not have to complain too loud, he was a great guy about it.

It looks darker than it really is in the first few pics. It's more green than the blue it appears to be.
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Hood to Dr. Fender
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Hood, Cowl, to Dr Fender
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I like the color, it's just way off from the original and I am sure he could not recreate it again... I didn't expect it to be a perfect match since the burb has been painted a few years, but this was not even in the ball park....
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Overall I am satisfied with the way this project turned out. As always there is more work that COULD be done. But what they heck, we buy these things to drive not work on the constantly. (Although I will say I do enjoy that part too.) :truck:

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

I like the color! I'm planning on doing the Power Tour with my suburban also. That's assuming I can get it all back together......If not, I guess I'll have to take the Farm Truck, :sexy:.

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

That's a clean-looking rig you got there my friend. Wish mine were that nice!

Re: 69 Suburban refresh
 

Thanks Rob. The Farm Truck? Oh that old slow thing...:) Hey, as time gets closer we should talk about putting together a caravan for the trip. Sort of a 2 way powertour!

Thanks Sierra Looks like you have a great one to start with.

Steve